Students consider senate responsibilities before voting

Oct. 10, 2012

Written by

Olivia Wilson

Staff Writer

At the bi-annual Student Government Association elections on Wednesday, Oct. 10, many students were forced to consider what the position they voted to fill entails.

FSU’s Student Government Association, which is in charge of $14.1 million dollars annually, is comprised of three branches, but this semester’s votes mainly consist of senate seats.

SGA’s main legislative body is the student senate, which conducts most of the SGA business and fills committees. Senate positions are elected at the beginning of each fall and spring semester and they serve for one full year, but can be reelected.

When one is elected as a senator, they serve as a voice for his or her major. There are 60 seats in senate and each seat is designated for a specific major, the amount of seats depending on the amount of students admitted in the major.

In brief, the SGA senator is a liaison between the students and SGA. They represent their constituency, which could be considered their major or the campus as a whole. If an RSO wants funding through SGA, someone has a complaint about the campus, or anything affects a student, it is a senator’s job to take that complaint or request and make sure that is brought to SGA’s attention. Most senators want to make a difference that can be seen on campus.

“I was looking to get more involved with the campus,” said senator Tyler Grove. “I was already an orientation leader and I worked on campus and did things like that, but I was like, I really want to do something to leave my legacy behind, so I was hoping that I could maybe do some kind of legislation to leave, whatever it would be, on campus so that I can come back and be like ‘Wow, I worked hard and here is something to prove how much I care about Florida State.’”

The primary job of an SGA senator is to attend and represent their constituents at student senate meetings held each Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Senate Chambers, located in Oglesby Union. Although these meetings are open to all students, only senators may vote.

Grove was proud of his bill passed this summer, resulting in an incentive for more students to attend their Wednesday night meetings.

“I did do a bill to create food for senate,” said Grove. “So, essentially, over the summer I did a bill to move $1,000 because there’s food at every senate, so it’s an incentive to not only get senators to come out but any general students are more than welcome. Now there’s free food for them, hopefully to get more people out.”

Outside of senate, senators work on one or more committees where they work on more “hands on” legislation, policies and special projects for students. There are six standing committees: judiciary, internal affairs, rules and calendar, budget, finance and student affairs. These may include bills to allocate SGA funds to individual RSOS, resolutions to change University policy or make a statement or change statutes in the constitution.

Grove is on the budget committee, and while he said they aren’t busy all the time, each year they have a “budget week” that takes up a lot of time.

“All the organizations will come and say, ‘We would like this much money funded for the upcoming year,’ and then we hear all the different cases,” said Grove. “We kind of work with them to make sure that they’re getting a fair allocation.”